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I've taken this one step further and I now use a full-on burner credit card. It has no autopay or reoccurring payments associated with it so I could light it on
by zucked 5y ago
I've taken this one step further and I now use a full-on burner credit card. It has no autopay or reoccurring payments associated with it so I could light it on fire and not be too upset about it.
I' have all my autopayments set up on a specific card that never leaves a drawer in my house.
End result is that when the burner card gets compromised, as it does several times a year at gas pumps and such, I toss it out, get a new one and it's not all that painful. The autopayment card has yet to be compromised.
I wish it were easier to get temporary card numbers without giving someone else access to my purchase data.
- dsizzle 5y agoI don't get it - you fully cancel the card? Or do you mean you just get the credit card to issue a new one? If that's the case, then I don't the "burner" aspect. That's just normal usage. If the former, what advantage does that provide? Is it not in your name? If there's some fraudulent charge but you just bail on the card rather than go through the normal process, it looks like non-payment and affects your credit.
- toast0 5y agoParaphrasing a lot, I think the advice is to have one credit card for scheduled payments and things, and not take that out of the house. That way if your out and about card gets replaced, you won't need to go through and update all your scheduled payments.
- jkubicek 5y agoI can't be the only one that uses my once-every-18-month credit card cancellation to help me track down the services that I forgot I had subscribed to.
- zucked 5y agoMy card number and expiration get skimmed at, I assume, gas pumps and such. I call my issuer, tell them the card has been compromised, we review charges and throw out the fraudulent one(s) and they cancel that card number. The underlaying account remains in place, they overnight be a new card (with a new number and exp) rendering the old one useless. It used to be a huge pain, because after that I would have to update all my stored payments and autopays.
- ricardobayes 5y agoYou guys would love revolut we have in Europe. It has capability to generate virtual card numbers that automatically get disabled after a single use.
- aspenmayer 5y agoRevolut is available in US for a year or more now, but I’m not sure about the feature you mentioned.
- highpost 5y agoI use this approach and it has reduced my stress immensely. Before when my regular credit card was compromised I would need to cancel it and reprogram all my auto-billing accounts. With about 20 of these there was always a painful hiccup. It’s been several years now of smooth sailing.
- zrail 5y agoI used to have to burn cards every year or so until I started only getting gas at stations that accept Apple Pay. I haven't had to burn a card since then.
- jkhdigital 5y agoYour credit card gets compromised several times a year? Is this normal? I’ve had like one fraudulent charge in over 15 years of using credit cards.
- zucked 5y agoIt was exceptionally bad a year or two ago when I developed this method. My card got compromised at least once a year - I'm guessing via skimming at gas pumps, etc.